animal cells

• Organisms are made up of cells
• Most organisms are multicellular and have cells that are specialised to do a particular job
• Microscopes are needed to study cells in detail
• Animal cells


  Almost all animals and plants are made up of cells. Animal cells have a basic structure.
• Cytoplasm

  A jelly-like material that contains dissolved nutrients and salts and structures called organelles. It is where many of the chemical reactions happen.
• Nucleus

  Contains genetic material, including DNA, which controls the cell's activities.
• Cell membrane

  Its structure is permeable to some substances but not to others. It therefore controls the movement of substances in and out of the cell.
• Most cells are specialised and are adapted for their function
• Animals and plants therefore consist of many different types of cell working together
• mitochondria

  where most energy is released in respiration
• ribosomes

  tiny structures where protein synthesis occurs